[Prevalence of mental disorders and risk factors in a population of a general medical practice]. / Prevalencia de trastornos mentales y factores de riesgo en una población de práctica médica general.

The present paper reports the most relevant results from an epidemiologic survey that was carried out in a hospital's general practice service in Mexico. The survey comprises several issues such-as: the validity and standardization of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), a screening instrument, designed for the early detection of mental disorders, which is validated against the clinical criteria expressed through the Standardized Psychiatric Interview (SPI), the prevalence of psychiatric disorders which includes type of syndromes and affected subgroups, the relation between the ratings of the SPI and the scales of the GHQ (somatic symptoms, sleep disturbances, social disfunction and severe depression) with demographic variables. From the population attending the service during a period of 5 weeks, a total of 619 patients, to whom the GHQ was administered, were randomly selected. From this sample 364 patients were separately interviewed by means of the SPI. No significant differences were found between the sample and the population regarding age, sex, and educational level. The prevalence of mental disorders obtained for the mixed population was of 34%, being of 26% for men and of 36% for women. The only risk factor found for both populations was the low educational level of the head of the family. In the multiple regression analysis, significant differences were found among some groups in spite of the low predictive power of the studied variables.

Prevalencia de trastornos mentales y factores de riesgo en una población de práctica médica general. / [Prevalence of mental disorders and risk factors in a population of a general medical practice]

The present paper reports the most relevant results from an epidemiologic survey that was carried out in a hospitals general practice service in Mexico. The survey comprises several issues such-as: the validity and standardization of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), a screening instrument, designed for the early detection of mental disorders, which is validated against the clinical criteria expressed through the Standardized Psychiatric Interview (SPI), the prevalence of psychiatric disorders which includes type of syndromes and affected subgroups, the relation between the ratings of the SPI and the scales of the GHQ (somatic symptoms, sleep disturbances, social disfunction and severe depression) with demographic variables. From the population attending the service during a period of 5 weeks, a total of 619 patients, to whom the GHQ was administered, were randomly selected. From this sample 364 patients were separately interviewed by means of the SPI. No significant differences were found between the sample and the population regarding age, sex, and educational level. The prevalence of mental disorders obtained for the mixed population was of 34

, being of 26

for men and of 36

for women. The only risk factor found for both populations was the low educational level of the head of the family. In the multiple regression analysis, significant differences were found among some groups in spite of the low predictive power of the studied variables.

El medico general en la deteccion de trastornos emocionales / The general practitioner in the detection of emotional disorders

Se comparo la eficacia del medico general con la del Cuestionario General de Salud de Goldberg en el descubrimiento de trastornos emocionales en la poblacion que asiste a la consulta externa de un hospital general. De la frecuencia total (33.3%) de trastornos emocionales estimada para esta poblacion, el medico general descubrio unicamente 15.9%, lo cual permitio identificar la tendencia del mismo hacia la sobreestimacion de los sujetos sin trastornos. El Cuestionario General de Salud mostro mayor eficacia al descubrir 25.6% de los pacientes con trastornos emocionales. Los resultados favorecen la utilizacion de instrumento como el cuestionario como medida de apoyo para el medico en el descubrimiento de trastornos mentales

The factor structure of the GHQ: a scaled version for a hospital's general practice service in Mexico.

This paper reports the factor structure of the symptoms comprising the GHQ when it is administered in the general practice service of a hospital. Two shorter versions are proposed: one with 6 scales and 30 items, and the other with 4 scales and 28 items. The latter is compared with the 28-item English version. Preliminary data concerning the validity of the scales are presented. In a comparison of the screening potentiality of the 60- and 28-item versions, no significant differences were found.